Batman's Niece
by EmiStone
Summary: What if Batman had a long lost Niece? This is the story of Violet Elizabeth King, best friend to Artemis Crock. Can she prove to her family, and most of all, to herself that she is worth something? And who will her Mentor be? Find Out! Young Justice OC.
1. The Beginning

**Hello! EmiStone here! Here is my second attempt at a Young Justice FanFic. The first one didn't go so well, so I hope you like this one more. I just had dream about this last night and my muse wouldn't let me go until I had written it. Its still won't so, a new chapter might be coming soon. Please review. I hope you like it!**

**~EmiStone**

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><p>I am outside<br>And I've been waiting for the sun  
>With my wide eyes<br>I've seen worlds that don't belong  
>My mouth is dry with words I cannot verbalize<br>Tell me why we live like this

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><p><strong>BatmanBruce Wayne's P.O.V.**

The phone rang early that morning, waking me up from my fitful sleep. I went downstairs and picked it up, Alfred deserved some sleep anyway.

"Hello?" I asked sleepily.

"Hello, is this Bruce Wayne?" The voice on the other end of the phone asked in an official manner. I was immediately awake.

"This is he. May I ask who's calling?" I asked, wary.

"This is Officer Wright from the Gotham police department." The voice said, confusing me thoroughly.

"What do you need officer?" I asked.

"You were put down as an emergency contact for one, Violet Elizabeth King? She was found wandering the streets of Gotham with an injury to the arm. The police were going to take her to the Hospital when she ran. They managed to find her two days later, due to the blood loss she fainted. She was taken to the Hospital, and when we pulled her file up her only living emergency contact was you. It seems that her mother died four to five years ago. Could you come down to the General Hospital or the station so we can sort this out, please?" Officer Wright finished, breaking me out of my stupor.

"Yes, of course. Thank you very much." I said, making a last ditch effort to seem normal.

"Thank you. Goodbye." Officer Wright said, ending the call. I sank down in one of the kitchen seats, rubbing my temples.

"Who was that?" Alfred asked from the other side of the Kitchen, making breakfast.

"An Officer from the police station, apparently I'm listed as an Emergency Contact for a little girl." I said, still trying to figure it out.

"Really? What's her name?" Dick asked from the doorway, excited.

"Violet Elizabeth King," I said, amused, Alfred dropped the pan, but I ignored it to be polite. "Why are you so excited?" I asked.

"I could have a sister, or a niece or a-" Dick said excitedly, before being cut off by Alfred.

"Cousin." Alfred said with finality, turning back to the stove.

"Aster!" Dick said, which I chose to ignore.

"What?" I asked, really confused.

"Well, you remember that rumor you had of a sister, maybe three years ago?" Alfred asked, I nodded. "Well, you did. But I didn't tell you because she was dead, and you would just freak out again. I didn't know she had a daughter, though." He said, nonchalantly. I jumped up and ran down to the Bat-Cave. And typed in her name on the Bat-Computer. Sure enough, there was Violet Elizabeth King, daughter of Elizabeth Martha Wayne, who changed her name to King. I forgot about the family tradition of having the mothers name be the middle name of the daughter… I looked her up further, but I couldn't find an address or really anything else. I went back upstairs, then to my room. I got changed and went downstairs; Alfred had already pulled up the limo.

"Bye, Bruce!" Dick shouted after me, "I can't wait to meet my cousin!" Sometimes he seemed a little younger than thirteen. I went in the limo and we soon arrived at the Hospital, which as per usual whenever I go _anywhere_ was surrounded by paparazzi. It is pretty annoying actually. I just ignored the questions and nodded at the police officer at the door. One of the police officers detached himself from the crowd and walked over to me.

"Bruce Wayne?" He asked, I nodded and shook his hand.

"Officer Wright, I presume." I said. He nodded.

"Well, here is her room." He said, stopping outside the door to the Hospital room. "I'll be right out here if she tries anything. She beat up some of our best during that chase, and she had blood loss. Be careful." He finished, I perked up.

"Don't worry. I think I can handle it." I said, going into the room, and gasping.

"Mr. Wayne?" Officer Wright asked, putting his hand on my shoulder, I shook him off.

"It's nothing." I said, although it was most certainly something. Lying on the bed was a teenager who was the spitting image of my mother, when she was a teenager of course. Officer Wright closed the door, and I sat in one of the visitor's chairs, just staring at her. Alfred came in a half an hour later.

"The Press is gone, they gave u- Martha?" He gasped. I shook my head.

"She does look like her, doesn't she?" I asked, with my head in my hands. Alfred came over and pulled up a visitor's chair too.

"Yes, she does." He said, sounding like he was going to collapse. Suddenly, she started to stir, she sat up and opened her eyes, showing them to be the startling color of aquamarine that my father talked about in his love letters; and pushed her red hair over her shoulders. She started upon seeing Alfred and I sitting there staring at her.

"Who are you people?" She asked in a confrontational voice that neither Alfred nor I were expecting.

"Well, come on. I don't have all day. Who are you and where are we?" She asked, showing an accent from the Lower City.

"I'm your Uncle." I said, getting myself under control thanks to my practice at it.

"OK, then. Next question." She said, still with the accent. Alfred looked truly weirded out.

"Um, we're in the General Hospital, Gotham." I said, she sighed in relief.

"Oh, good. Well, not good. Um, see you two. Great meeting you, really. But, I really have to get home, they must be freaking out right now." She said, getting up and starting to remove the IV chord.

"OK, first of all, where do you live?" I asked, stopping her from removing the IV chord.

"With the Crocks." She said, sitting back down on her bed.

"You live with Sportsmaster and Cheshire?" I asked, horrified.

"Well, first of all," She said, mocking me, "Cheshire moved out about six years ago, which was about two before I came, although I did know her pretty well. And Secondly, Lawrence moved out two years ago when Mom, I'm sorry, Paula, got out of prison." She finished, causing my brows to go up at the casual use of the word "mom."

"OK, so you're living alone with an assassin?" I asked, trying to keep my voice even. She smirked.

"No, I'm living with an _ex_-assassin and my best friend, Artemis." She said, pulling out her IV chord. I didn't even try to stop her.

"Artemis is…?" Alfred asked, since I was at a loss.

"Paula and Lawrence's daughter, of course. Why do you care?" She asked, almost flippantly.

"I'm your Uncle." I said, she just narrowed her eyes, but for a second she looked almost fearful.

"Once again, I really have to go. Bye!" She said, literally flipping out of the open window behind her. I rushed over to the window, expecting to see her splattered on the sidewalk twenty floors below us, but instead she was nowhere to be seen. I turned to Alfred, who was actually grinning in amusement.

"What's so funny?" I asked, trying to keep my voice even.

"She's just like you were."

**Violet's P.O.V.**

I flipped onto the rooftop next door, using the flag pole near the Hospital to propel myself. I ran to the apartment and knocked on the door, Paula opened it and engulfed me in a hug. Well, I had to lean down, but that was OK, it still meant a lot. Then Artemis tackle-hugged me, with me laughing. Paula gestured us inside and we sat down for dinner.

"So, what happened?" Paula asked, serving out chicken.

"Well, some random thugs jumped me, and one got in a lucky shot." I said, trying to spare her anything really bad. Artemis and I both did it unconsciously.

"Where? And how deep? Should I get the First aid kit?" Paula asked, putting her hands on her wheels, completely ready to go get the First aid kit.

"It was in my arm. And it was deep enough some police officers took notice." Artemis and Paula both winced; police only mean bad things in my neighborhood. "So, I ended up beating them up and then avoiding other ones, for two days or so, so I couldn't come home, then I passed out from blood loss." I said, hoping they wouldn't ask for a follow up. Artemis just stared at me, not buying that that was the end of the story a bit.

"Go on, sweetie. We're not idiots." Paula said evenly. I smiled at her.

"OK, Mom. So, I woke up in the General Hospital, with my wound fully treated. A weirdo and some old dude were in my room, so I exchanged in brief pleasantries and booked it out of there. They kept _staring_ it was weird." I said, almost shivering. They were really strange.

"Oh, is that all?" Paula asked, knowing full well it wasn't.

"Um, well, the weirdo said I was his niece. But, that trick is the oldest one in the book. Everyone from this end knows that my mom told me to go look for my uncle. I mean, seriously? At least five goons have used it this week alone." I finished, Paula and Artemis nodded.

"Guess what?" Paula asked, obviously excited to show me a surprise.

"What?" I asked, excited.

"Your third job finally paid. We have cable!" Paula said, to much shrieking on Artemis and my part. I checked my watch.

"Well, you can try it out without us. Artemis and I have to go to our joint job. To Starbucks!" I said, making theatrical gestures. Artemis and I headed out the door, laughing. We stopped on the streets, and Artemis put her hand on her bow, while I touched my hands to my throwing knives. You don't venture out onto the streets of Gotham laughing and without visible weapons. We weren't bothered, though some goons did throw the word "Uncle" about. In a matter of time I had them really saying uncle. We continued to Starbucks and threw on our aprons and started serving. This particular Starbucks hosted all of the major villains of Gotham, and occasionally Batman. The Starbucks had a certain sense of job security, because only a handful of girls were able to have it, and we weren't about to be replaced. Also, if you miss a few days they just assume it had to do with Super-Villains capturing you because of the job, so they tended to not bring it up.

"Hello, what can I get you sir?" I asked, going up to a table with the occupant buried in his menu. He hid further in his menu, as if wanting to pop out. They do this sometimes, as if we had never seen it before.

"Seriously? If you're a Villain, I get it, you're evil, you're scary. But, seriously? The menu thing is cliché. You want coffee, or are you just wasting my time as well as everyone else's?" I said, which usually gets them out of their menu. Wait, was it shaking?

"Oh, black it is then." I said, ordering it in the kitchen. I got other orders and during a lull went back to the poor guy still holding his menu.

"Your normal, aren't you?" I asked. His head nodded.

"Name?" I asked, as if I didn't care at all.

"Joe Westerfield. I just wanted some coffee. I didn't know this was some kind of Super-Villain hangout." He said I handed him his coffee.

"Wait till my shifts over, and I can take you home. You live near here?" I asked, trying to sooth him. He nodded and drained the coffee, handing me some money for it.

"Right down the street. I just moved here, not a lot of money." He mumbled. I nodded.

"OK, menu down. No one attacks anyone in this store. Batman and the Joker have sat two tables apart before." I said, he put his menu down, and I saw that he was telling the truth.

"OK, I'll take you home. But, no funny business, got it?" I asked he nodded. I finished my shift and turned to Artemis.

"We got a Robby." I said, in reference to the first boy we had helped out.

"Oh, where?" She asked, obviously not wanting to spend that much time, as we had cable to get home to.

"In our way." I said she nodded. We hung our aprons up and headed out the door with Joe Westerfield.

"Hey, Art, Vi!" Our friend Chelsea from the next shift greeted us as we left. We stopped briefly to talk.

"Sup, Chels?" I asked, hiding Joe behind me.

"Nothing. Sup with you two? You seem pretty excited." She said, obviously trying to get in on it, whatever it was.

"You'll never guess! Mom found some rotten cucumbers in the dumpster!" I said excitedly. Well, she had.

"So?" Chelsea asked, confused.

"So, they were too rotten to eat, but not to rotten for _facials_! It's going to be so fun! Paula's gonna play your old radio you let us fix up. And I bought a bag of chips, and we might watch a movie on that old TV that has a crack in it!" I said, practically jumping up and down in my excitement. Chelsea smiled.

"Oh, you girls have fun with your girls' night in! And I keep telling you, if you just steal a TV yours wouldn't have a crack in it." Chelsea said matter-of-factly, happy for us for having a bit of fun.

"Oh, well, see you Chelsea! Have fun with Dave!" Artemis said forcefully, before I could blow up in Chelsea's face. Dave was a customer that had come at Chelsea's shift everyday for the past month, and he tipped generously.

"Trust me girls. I will. Now, you get home to your mama. Have a nice girls' night! You deserve it!" She said, walking into the restaurant. We nodded and walked down the street, with me to one side of Joe Westerfield and her to the other.

"Why do you not let me yell at her? I _like_ yelling at her." I said to Artemis, who smiled.

"Exactly. My goal in life is to make yours a living hell. How am I doing?" She said jokingly. I hit her lightly on the shoulder than stopped, looking up with really wide eyes.

"Artemis…" I said, poking her on the shoulder.

"What? Holy Shit." She said, looking in the direction I was and seeing a large dark shape on top of our apartment building. Joe Westerfield looked about to pee his pants.

"OK, Joe. Where do you live?" I asked, never looking away from that shape. It could only mean one thing.

"Um, over there." He said, pointing to the building behind us. We walked him to the door and saw him in safely. Then we walked back to our apartment building, which was, as per usual this time of night, surrounded by thugs. It was a small gang that was on the rise. We had been friends with the mob boss forever, so they couldn't hurt us in any way that Jake, the mob boss, could see anyways.

"Sup, little ladies." Adam, one of the nicer ones, said politely.

"Sup, Adam?" Artemis asked.

"What's shackle akin?" I asked, like he had taught me in grade school. He laughed.

"Still trying to find your Uncle, you little bitch?" Asked Jeremy, who had a grudge against me ever since he tried to grab me and I kicked him in the balls.

"Hey, Jeremy. Not really. You still looking for your balls? Oh, wait! You never had any to begin with!" I said, acting like I had just solved the mystery of the Mona Lisa's smile.

"You little-" He said, jumping up from his perch and coming towards me, seemingly to strangle me.

"Hey, Jeremy? What did I say about strangling my friends?" Jake said from behind him, almost lazily, before flipping him over his head and into the gutter. He looked at Artemis and I concerned. Jake had raven-black hair and the brightest blue eyes imaginable. Despite his career he had no scars and every girl in my whole neighborhood had a crush on him. Artemis and Paula were convinced he liked _me_ however, I think it was just one of those fantasies they were prone to.

"You guys OK?" He asked, staring at me strangely.

"Yep. We're fine Jake, Jeremy just got excited, again." Artemis said, before I could say anything.

"You guys have a nice night, then." He said, still looking at me weirdly. "Hey, Vi?" He said quickly, and quietly.

"Yah?" I asked.

"Watch the News." He said cryptically, I nodded.

"Hey, Jake?" I asked he nodded a yes.

"Did you see who's on top of this roof right now?" Artemis blurted out.

"We're trying to show we aren't scared." Jake said, using a brave act with a little tinge of fear. Artemis and I exchanged glances.

"OK." Artemis said, "If you get arrested, we'll testify for you Jake,"

"And maybe Adam," I continued, Artemis and I sometimes talked like we were twins, it was a habit we picked up from living like twins for four and a half years.

"But definitely not Jeremy. Yah, he can,"

"Rot in Hell, for all we,"

"Care." Artemis finished, we laughed and hugged Jake and then went in. We went into the apartment and let ourselves in. Paula was sitting at the table, practically jumping up and down in her excitement. We jumped onto the sofa and turned the TV on, giggling like four year olds. We watched a couple of shows before Paula asked what else we should watch.

"Jake told Vi to watch the News." Artemis said, with obvious glee.

"Oh, did he?" Paula said, wagging her eyebrows up and down suggestively. I giggled.

"Oh, come on. It wasn't weird like you people. He seemed kind of worried actually." I said thoughtfully. Paula got her worried face on.

"Well, the News it is then." Paula said quickly turning on the News. There was a News reporter lady outside of the General Hospital.

"Yes, its Cat Grant here, and according to an inside source _the_ Billionaire, Bruce Wayne, has a niece! He visited this very Hospital behind me early this morning and came out looking shell-shocked; apparently he _and_ his niece just found out this morning that they were in anyway related. This remarkable Cinderella-like story has the whole city buzzing! We are led to believe that his niece is still in this very Hospital! Her identity is being kept a secret, as well as her injury, but we here at GBS we are trying our hardest to find out. Here is a picture of Mr. Bruce Wayne going out of the Hospital." A photo came up on the screen and I gasped. "Stick around, next we are going to talk about the flower market with Iris West-Allen." The News went to commercial and Paula put it on mute, staring at me. Artemis decided to join in on the staring contest, while I could barely form coherent thought. Artemis hit me on the back of the head and I started.

"Thanks." I said, smiling at her, she smiled back and joined in on the staring again.

"What hospital were you sent to?" Paula asked, obviously seeing that I didn't know where to begin.

"General." I said, in a little bit of a freakish whisper.

"And what did the weirdo who said he was your Uncle look like?" Artemis asked.

"Him, the dude on the TV…" I said, still freaking out inside.

"OK, so that means he was telling the truth?" Paula asked I nodded.

"But, I don't want to go live with him. You guys are my family." I said forcefully.

"But, you could have a better life. You could go on and do something really special. And your mother told you to-" Paula said, but I cut her off.

"Yah, go look for my Uncle. And why did she do that? To get me off her back. She literally abandoned me. If she wasn't shot in the alleyway I would have never seen her again. She _hated_ me." I practically shouted Paula winced.

"She _loved_ you. And now I do in her place. Which is _why_ you should go and at least _talk_ to your Uncle." Paula said with finality.

"_Well_, he knows where I live, so he can come here if you want me to _talk_ to him so bad, Mom." I said she wheeled around.

"You honestly expect a billionaire to come here? And anyways, how exactly did Jake know you were in General Hospital and met Bruce Wayne?" She asked, clearly teasing me. I blushed.

"He must have been _watching_ to make sure you were OK!" Artemis said, teasing me further. My blush turned tomato color.

"I'm going to bed!" I said, kissing Paula on the cheek and heading into Artemis and my room. I slept on the bed that Jade used to sleep on, because there wasn't room for one more, and it made Artemis and Paula less sad. Artemis came to bed a couple of minutes later, it was Friday, and so we had work all day tomorrow.

"You don't want to go live with him because you want to support Mom and I, don't you?" Artemis asked, as if asking the weather. I propped myself up.

"You guys are my family, and you have been for four and a half years. I work three jobs and we are barely getting by. Take them away, and you guys are starving. I couldn't do that; I just couldn't live with myself. You guys have always been there for me, when I started doing that weird thing, you guys supported me. Well, Mom was in prison, but she supported me on Visitor Days." I said, forcefully, Artemis nodded, understanding completely.

"Speaking of 'that weird thing', how is it going?" Artemis asked.

"Pretty well, I cooled the coffee without spilling it today, and I helped Jeremy fly, if you catch my meaning." I said, grinning evilly.

"Good, you need the practice. And he deserved it." She added, almost like it was an after-thought. I smiled.

"Yah, he really did. Apparently he terrorized poor Joe Westerfield before we got there. Beka told me." I said, explaining my actions.

"Ahh, I thought you were a little disproportionally angry. Well, more than you usually are." She said jokingly, I threw a pillow at her using 'that weird thing'. She grabbed it and threw it back, which launched into a full scale pillow war, which involved a lot of hand-to-hand combat and gymnastics, finally I was distracted by a sound near the window, and Artemis tackled me to the ground and held a pillow in the kill position.

"OK, what do you want?" I asked, knowing that it was something. Our pillow battles always end with the winner getting something.

"You have to come with me after work to see your Uncle." She said.

"Oh, fine. Mom put you up to this didn't she?" I asked, she got off me and I got up, stretching my spine.

"Oh yah, totally. But you pillow war promised. So you're stuck!" She said, laughing and getting back into her bed. "Night!" I got into my bed too, grumbling about ungrateful sisters who think they're all that because they won a pillow war because I was distracted. The last one was said at more than a mumble and Artemis laughed. We both fell asleep, preparing for one very interesting day tomorrow.


	2. Say Uncle!

**Hello there! This is EmiStone speaking. Please fasten your seat-belts and prepare for another amazing chapter of Batman's Niece! **

**~EmiStone**

**P.S. I unfortunately do not own Young Justice.**

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><p>Me and all my friends<br>We're all misunderstood  
>They say we stand for nothing and<br>There's no way we ever could  
>Now we see everything that's going wrong<br>With the world and those who lead it  
>We just feel like we don't have the means<br>To rise above and beat it

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><p><strong>BatmanBruce Wayne's P.O.V.**

I came out of the Hospital shell-shocked and didn't say a word to any one until I got home. Dick came bouncing down the stairs and landed in front of me.

"So? Do I have a cousin?" He asked, practically jumping up and down. Alfred nodded.

"And she looks exactly like your Grandmother. It's kind of freaky actually." Alfred answered. I just headed to the Batcave, with them following after, and pulled up the Crock address. Luckily, I had both eyes and ears in the apartment, due to when Sportsmaster lived there, so I could see and hear everything.

"Why is it freaky?" Dick asked from behind me, looking at the video of Violet hugging Paula Crock then being rushed inside, which wasn't surprising, it is Gotham, after all, and then sitting down for a meager looking dinner of chicken.

"Because it doesn't sound like your Grandmother." Alfred said, just as the sound turned on.

"Well, some random thugs jumped me, and one got in a lucky shot." Violet said, in obvious response to Paula's question of what happened.

"What did my Grandmother sound like?" Dick asked, obviously knowing that the answer wasn't like a street thug.

"Aristocratic." Was Alfred's answer, before I shushed them and got back to the video.

"Go on, sweetie. We're not idiots." Paula said evenly. Violet smiled at her.

"OK, Mom." Violet said, to the whole rooms' obvious surprise, "So, I woke up in the General Hospital, with my wound fully treated. A weirdo and some old dude were in my room, so I exchanged in brief pleasantries and booked it out of there. They kept _staring_ it was weird." Dick sniggered from behind me, and Alfred lightly hit him over the head.

"Oh, is that all?" Paula asked with the air of a mother who is about to get her daughter in trouble and is relishing the moment.

"Um, well, the weirdo said I was his niece. But, that trick is the oldest one in the book. Everyone from this end knows that my mom told me to go look for my uncle. I mean, seriously? At least five goons have used it this week alone." Violet said, Paula and Artemis nodded.

"Oh, _that's_ why she reacted strangely!" Alfred exclaimed, "But why does everyone know she was looking for her Uncle?" I shrugged, even I didn't have the answer to that.

"Guess what?" Paula asked, obviously excited to show Violet a surprise.

"What?" Violet asked, excited.

"Your third job finally paid. We have cable!" Paula said, to much shrieking on Artemis and Violet's part.

"They are that excited about cable?" Dick asked, confused, "We had cable in the Circus…"

"Third Job?" Alfred asked.

"Well, you can try it out without us. Artemis and I have to go to our first joint job. To Starbucks!" Violet said, making theatrical gestures.

I pulled up the video for the Starbucks down the street, which is known as a neutral zone, purely for the fact that the waitresses are known as the toughest fighters in the business, they are often Assassins that get tired of killing, or Mercenaries that need some extra cash. That Violet and Artemis had that job was in itself impressive. I often went there as Batman to find criminals, but even I didn't dare start something. And the night shifts were always the most dangerous…

They arrived and started their shift like it was a normal Starbucks. They served to the Joker's goons, Poison Ivy, the Penguin, and Two-Face. Then Violet came up to the table where a man was hiding behind his menu, she said something to him, and he nodded, then she left. About thirty minutes later she got him Black Coffee and soothed him until he dropped his menu to the table. He seemed to be a perfectly normal person, who was stuck in a very bad situation. He drained his Black Coffee, and they headed out the door, with Artemis in tow.

I turned around to see Dick dressed up as Robin with the Bat-Mobile keys twirling in his hand, while Alfred handed me my uniform and cowl and turned back to the screen, pulling up the feed from her living room. We headed out and crouched on top of her apartment building. Apparently the small, but growing, gang that had smuggled in the Joker venom to the insane asylum was situated here.

Violet and Artemis were headed down the street with the poor man, and were staring at Robin and me on top of their building. They helped the man to his apartment and crossed the street, where we could now hear them.

"Sup, little ladies." One of the gangsters, said politely, much to Robin and my surprise.

"Sup, Adam?" Artemis asked.

"What's shackle akin?" Violet asked, in what was apparently an inside joke. He laughed.

"Still trying to find your Uncle, you little bitch?" Asked another one of them, who apparently held a grudge against Violet or Artemis.

"Hey, Jeremy. Not really. You still looking for your balls? Oh, wait! You never had any to begin with!" Violet said, acting like she had just solved a huge mystery, apparently the grudge was mutual.

"You little-" He said, jumping up from his perch and coming towards Violet, seemingly to strangle her, Robin looked ready to jump down there but I held him back, it might be interesting to see how this works out.

"Hey, Jeremy? What did I say about strangling my friends?" The Mob Boss said from behind him, almost lazily, before flipping him over his head and into the gutter. He looked at Artemis and Violet with concern.

"You guys OK?" He asked, staring at Violet strangely.

"Yep. We're fine Jake, Jeremy just got excited, again." Artemis said, before Violet could say anything.

"You guys have a nice night, then." He said, still looking at Violet weirdly. "Hey, Vi?" He said quickly, and quietly. Then said something we couldn't hear. Violet nodded.

"Hey, Jake?" Violet asked he nodded a yes.

"Did you see who's on top of this roof right now?" Artemis blurted out.

"We're trying to show we aren't scared." Jake said, using a brave act with a little tinge of fear. Artemis and Violet exchanged glances.

"OK." Artemis said, "If you get arrested, we'll testify for you Jake,"

"And maybe Adam," Violet continued, Artemis and she started talking like twins.

"But definitely not Jeremy. Yah, he can,"

"Rot in Hell, for all we,"

"Care." Artemis finished, they laughed and hugged the Mob Boss and then went in. Robin and I looked at each other strangely. We switched sides, so that we could see into the apartment and Alfred connected to the sound. They were watching TV for what seemed like an hour before they seemed to run out of shows that they wanted to watch.

"Jake told Vi to watch the News." Artemis said, with obvious glee.

"Oh, did he?" Paula said, wagging her eyebrows up and down suggestively at Violet. Violet giggled, and blushed.

"Oh, come on. It wasn't weird like you people. He seemed kind of worried actually." Violet said almost thoughtfully.

"Well, the News it is then." Paula said quickly turning on the News.

"Yes, its Cat Grant here, and according to an inside source _the_ Billionaire, Bruce Wayne, has a niece! He visited this very Hospital behind me early this morning and came out looking shell-shocked; apparently he _and_ his niece just found out this morning that they were in anyway related. This remarkable Cinderella-like story has the whole city buzzing! We are led to believe that his niece is still in this very Hospital! Her identity is being kept a secret, as well as her injury, but we here at GBS we are trying our hardest to find out. Here is a picture of Mr. Bruce Wayne going out of the Hospital." Violet gasped. "Stick around, next we are going to talk about the flower market with Iris West-Allen." The News went to commercial and Paula put it on mute, staring at Violet. Artemis hit Violet on the back of the head to jolt her out of her apparent stupor.

"Thanks." Violet said, smiling at Artemis.

"What hospital were you sent to?" Paula asked.

"General." Violet said in a harsh whisper.

"And what did the weirdo who said he was your Uncle look like?" Artemis asked.

"Him, the dude on the TV…" Violet said, obviously shocked.

"OK, so that means he was telling the truth?" Paula asked Violet nodded.

"But, I don't want to go live with him. You guys are my family." Violet said forcefully.

"But, you could have a better life. You could go on and do something really special. And your mother told you to-" Paula said, but Violet cut her off.

"Yah, go look for my Uncle. And why did she do that? To get me off her back. She literally abandoned me. If she wasn't shot in the alleyway I would have never seen her again. She _hated_ me." Violet practically shouted Paula winced.

"She _loved_ you. And now I do in her place. Which is _why_ you should go and at least _talk_ to your Uncle." Paula said with finality.

"_Well_, he knows where I live, so he can come here if you want me to _talk_ to him so bad, Mom." Violet said she wheeled around.

"You honestly expect a billionaire to come here? And anyways, how exactly did Jake know you were in General Hospital and met Bruce Wayne?" She asked, clearly teasing Violet, who blushed.

"He must have been _watching_ to make sure you were OK!" Artemis said teasingly. Violet's blush deepened as Robin and I looked at each other.

"I'm going to bed!" Violet practically shouted, kissing Paula on the cheek and heading a room with two beds. She went into the bathroom and came out in her pajamas. She lied down on the bed beneath the poster of Alice in Wonderland, frowning at it unconsciously. Artemis came in and did the same routine, lying down in the other bed across the room. Robin and I got ready to do patrols, but then Artemis broke the silence in the room with a statement that made all the difference to Robin and me.

"You don't want to go live with him because you want to support Mom and I, don't you?" It was an explanation for all of her vehemence to the idea and the small fearful look she gave me when I told her. Violet propped herself up on her elbow.

"You guys are my family, and you have been for four and a half years. I work three jobs and we are barely getting by. Take them away, and you guys are starving. I couldn't do that; I just couldn't live with myself. You guys have always been there for me, when I started doing that weird thing, you guys supported me. Well, Mom was in prison, but she supported me on Visitor Days." Violet said, forcefully, Artemis nodded.

"Weird thing?" Robin asked through our com.

"It could be powers." I said shortly.

"Speaking of 'that weird thing', how is it going?" Artemis asked.

"Pretty well, I cooled the coffee without spilling it today, and I helped Jeremy fly, if you catch my meaning." Violet said, grinning evilly. Robin and I exchanged glances, evil isn't particularly good in our family.

"Good, you need the practice. And he deserved it." Artemis added. Violet smiled.

"Yah, he really did. Apparently he terrorized poor Joe Westerfield before we got there. Beka told me." Violet said, explaining her actions.

"A vigilante?" Robin asked. I nodded.

"Ahh, I thought you were a little disproportionally angry. Well, more than you usually are." Artemis said jokingly, a pillow suddenly detached itself from the chair and threw itself at Artemis who grabbed it and threw it back, seemingly used to this. This launched into a pillow fight. Which seemed normal at first, but then they started incorporating hand-to-hand combat the likes of which rivaled the League. There were also contortions around pillows, and jumping one-handedly. The strangest thing was that they made an effort to keep it quiet, and it worked. They were pretty evenly matched, but Violet seemed to be gaining the upper hand. Artemis seemed about to land a roundhouse kick, which cause Robin to move forward to intercept it, but I grabbed him, which caused a noise, distracting Violet who although she dodged the Roundhouse kick, looked to the window and missed the follow up pillow, and Artemis tackled her to the ground, holding the pillow in the kill position, which just looked strange.

"OK, what do you want?" Violet asked.

"You have to come with me after work to see your Uncle." Artemis said smugly.

"Oh, fine. Mom put you up to this didn't she?" Violet asked, getting up and stretching.

"Oh yah, totally. But you pillow war promised. So you're stuck!" Artemis said, laughing and getting back into her bed. "Night!"

Violet got into her bed too, grumbling about ungrateful sisters who think they're all that because they won a pillow war because she was distracted. The last one was said at more than a mumble and Artemis laughed. They both fell asleep and Robin and I went on patrol. The next day, Alfred had prepared the Manor to shining, and I was pacing back and forth trying to figure out what to say, while Dick was playing Video Games. Finally the doorbell rang, Alfred went to go answer it, and I desperately tried to flatten my hair while Dick paused his video game and jumped off the couch to stand next to me. I had a com in to hear the kitchen; I just really wanted to hear what was happening.

"Hello, there Violet. It's nice to properly meet you." I heard Alfred say, "And who is this?"

"This is my sister, Artemis Crock." I heard Violet say uncertainly.

"Nice to meet you, Artemis. I'm Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler. I raised him since his parents died when he was little. I'm sorry I was staring at you before, Violet, you just look exactly like Martha, your Grandmother." Way to go Alfred, say that in the first two minutes. I wonder what Violet is thinking…

**Violet's P.O.V.**

After our shift at the McDonalds Artemis and I headed out, I was hoping that Artemis had forgotten but she turned away from the path to our neighborhood, and was walking to the richest part of town. I jogged to catch up with her brisk walk.

"Do you even know where we're going?" I asked she didn't even glance at me.

"It was on the News this morning. So, we know what it looks like, and he's a billionaire, so he obviously lives in the richest part of town." Artemis said, as if with infallible logic.

"So you want us to search through all of the richest part of town until we find a house that looks like the one on the news?" I said, thinking that she had to have a better plan.

"Yep." She said, confirming that she didn't.

"In our McDonalds uniforms?" I asked, as obviously she didn't see the flaw in this plan. She nodded. I shook my head and followed her down the street. Random rich people took one glance at us and our uniforms, then held their noses so high that one of them stepped in dog poop. This made Artemis and I laugh so hard that the person actually looked at us. We eventually did find a house that looked like the one on TV. Unfortunately, we thought it was a mini castle on TV. We were wrong. It was _huge_ and made of bricks and looked like one of those castles that the Queen of England lives in, only _bigger. _I could see solar panels on the roof and a helipad, _with_ a helicopter on top. It was the last house on the street and it looked as if it was in the country, simply because the places where there should have been houses next to, and behind it, for three spaces, weren't there. Artemis and I stared at each other, gulped, and promptly went to the servants entrance in the back, after being authorized by the fence, and passing a _limo_. We checked the address at the side of the door: 1007 Mountain Drive, Gotham. This seemed to be a perfectly normal address, but this wasn't normal. I knocked on the door, which was opened by the old man from the Hospital, who ushered us into a perfectly normal state-of-the-art kitchen. Artemis and I were practically hyperventilating and were on our tip-toes, trying not to touch anything.

"Hello, there Violet. It's nice to properly meet you." The old man said startling me and causing me to almost touch something, Artemis pulled me back up so I didn't, much to my happiness, "And who is this?"

"This is my sister, Artemis Crock." I said uncertainly.

"Nice to meet you, Artemis. I'm Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler. I raised him since his parents died when he was little. I'm sorry I was staring at you before, Violet, you just look exactly like Martha, your Grandmother." The Ol- Alfred Pennyworth said abruptly. I looked at him strangely.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Pennyworth. It's good to know I look like my Grandmother. I didn't really look that much like my mother." I said, still trying not to touch anything. Mr. Pennyworth smiled and looked intrigued.

"Please dear, it's Alfred. And there is no need to stand there like strangers. Please sit down," He said, pointing to the beautiful modern glass table with high seats that looked like it belonged in a movie, about rich people. Artemis and I looked at each other in alarm. "What's wrong?" Mr. Pennyworth asked, seemingly confused.

"Um, well, um…" Artemis hedged, I decided to take the initiative.

"We just got of our shift," I said, unable to continue, for fear of upsetting his rich butleryness.

"At McDonalds." Artemis said in a hurry.

"And we don't want to ruin," I continued quickly.

"Your nice chairs." Artemis finished, stepping back slightly. Alfred looked mildly curious.

"Don't worry about it. Sit. I have some cookies in the middle of the table; don't be afraid to eat them!" Mr. Pennyworth said, before shooing us into the chairs. We perched on the very edge and still tried not to touch anything.

"Um, Mr. Pennyworth…" I said, trying to clue him in on the fact that we were not extremely comfortable.

"I told you, it's Alfred. I'll just go get Mr. Wayne and Dick then, shall I?" He said, before walking out of the room, leaving Artemis and I to our plight. We sat there for what seemed like forever, staring at the cookies.

"When was the last time we had cookies?" Artemis asked.

"We ate the stale ones we were supposed to throw out last week at Starbucks, remember?" I answered, still staring at the cookies.

"Yah, but I meant _real_ homemade cookies." She said. I thought about it.

"Mom made a dozen for our birthday, remember? She found twenty bucks on the street." I answered she turned and stared at me. I shrugged.

"Six Months?" She asked I nodded. "What if-"

"Don't even think about it. I want those cookies as much as you, but they're in a crystal bowl, made of _real_ crystal. Not the glass stuff that mom got from that pawn shop." I said, trying to shake myself and her out of it.

"You were thinking about it too, don't even deny it." Artemis said accusingly. I bit my lip.

"Well, yah. When are they coming?" I asked, trying to distract myself.

"Did you see the size of this house?" Artemis asked rhetorically. I nodded.

"But seriously, I need something to distract me!" I said. She looked thoughtful.

"How can we get the cookies without touching anything?" She asked. I thought for a second.

"We could flip over the table and grab a cookie from mid-air. Then if we timed it right we could land on the balls of our feet, absorbing the impact." I suggested. Artemis nodded.

"You have an angle and trajectory in mind?" She asked I tilted my head, studying the situation.

"Yep."

"You go first then." She said, I nodded and got out of my chair without moving it. I got into the starting position and flipped over the table, grabbing three cookies as I did. I handed one to Artemis, and we started eating happily. About five minutes later we had gotten two more cookies, using that same method and were eating them when Mr. Pennyworth came in with the man from the Hospital/TV, and a teenage boy with black hair, dark blue eyes, and a crooked smile. There was an extremely awkward silence as they sat down, and the boy raised his eyebrows at our postures.

"So, Violet, this is your uncle, Bruce Wayne. Mr. Wayne, this is Violet's adoptive sister Artemis. Artemis, Violet this is Dick Grayson, he is Mr. Wayne's adopted son, which makes him your cousin." Mr. Pennyworth said, introducing everyone. There was another awkward silence.

"You might be a little overwhelmed by all of this, Violet. I just want you to know that I'm not going to take you away from your family, I just want to get to know you, and be your Uncle, is I guess what I'm trying to say." Mr. Wayne said awkwardly. I thought for a second then nodded and smiled.

"That's what I want too." I said, awkwardly. He smiled.

"So, hi Cuz!" Dick said excitedly.

"Um, Hi," I hedged, still awkward. He reached over and grabbed a cookie almost deliberately, as Artemis and I had ran out and obviously we couldn't get more the same way we did before, as they were _here_. Everyone looked at us expectantly, and Artemis and I exchanged glances.

"So, which McDonalds do you work at?" Dick asked, but for the life of us Artemis and I couldn't find any disdain.

"The one down by the docks." Artemis answered. I nodded.

"We're bouncers." I continued, feeling it deserved some explanation.

"McDonalds normally have bouncers?" Dick asked, sounding like he already knew the answer, I answered anyways.

"This one does." There was another awkward silence which was this time broken by Artemis exclaiming an expletive. I turned and saw her pointing at the clock above the stove. It was 6:30.

"Oh, well, um, it was really nice meeting you, but we have to go home for dinner." I said, standing up carefully. They looked surprised.

"Oh, well, why don't we come over for dinner? Alfred has a turkey he just made." Bruce said, almost daring us to say no, I glanced at Artemis, who stared back.

"Um, well, can you fight?" I asked, as politely as possible. He didn't look very surprised.

"Yes." He replied simply. I looked him up and down, he was wearing a T-Shirt and blue jeans, Dick was as well, Alfred, however, was wearing a butler outfit.

"What about Mr. Pennyworth?" I asked.

"I have a butlers' Convention today. I've already made the turkey, you just take it and go." He said quickly.

"Can you put it in a Tupperware, and then in a plastic grocery bag, then a paper one?" Artemis asked, he nodded, and set about doing that. Artemis and I exchanged another glance and shrugged.

"OK, we should be fine once we get to our apartment building. You might get harassed a bit, specifically you, Dick. Just ignore it. We'll take care of it. How old are you?" I asked him, he seemed a little surprised.

"I'm 13." He said.

"For the purposes of today you're 12." Artemis told him. Mr. Pennyworth came back with the food, wrapped up like we had asked.

"Thank you, Mr. Pennyworth." I said, giving the package to Dick.

"I'm sorry, but I need my hands to not be full if we're going to my apartment building." I told him as explanation, he nodded. We headed out the door and went the opposite way to our apartment, when we got to the slums, Artemis took out her bow and loaded it, while I took out my knives and held them. We got about 100 yards when a bum ran out from an alley and decided to attack us. Artemis hit him with an arrow and pinned him to the building on the other side. Another hundred yards and we were surrounded by goons, on break from their jobs.

"Hey, little Violet, who are your friends? They don't look like they're from around here. Do you want us to introduce them?" Ed, one of the usuals asked. Artemis kept her bow ready and I readjusted my grip on my knives.

"No, thanks Ed. I have to get home you see, and kicking your butts would take time." I said in a tone of regret. He gulped, trying to find leverage.

"You want me to tell Jake you had a boy with you?" Bob asked, helping out Ed.

"I don't know. You want me to tell Jake you bothered me?" I asked, smiling.

"You little slut. You wouldn't dare." Ed said quickly.

"I won't, _if_ you get out of my way." I said, still smiling. They thought about it for a second with their collective two brains cells.

"Hey, Vi?" Artemis asked, going into our normal monologue with goons.

"Yah, Art?" The goons looked scared, and several ran away, the smart ones.

"This is boring." She said, using the voice of a whiny teenager.

"I know, right?" I replied in the same voice.

"Why don't we just beat them up?" She asked still in her teen voice.

"Oh, but Art, surely they deserve three seconds time to run." I said, still using my teen voice.

"Ok, Vi. Three."

"Two." My voice got more dangerous.

"One." She said, fully in a dangerous tone-of-voice. I sprang into action flipping over Ed's head and landing on the other side of him. I roundhouse kicked his head and punched the guys on either side of him in the pressure points at the neck. I gestured to Bruce, who went through the hole I had created, but one of the goons grabbed Dick, I threw a knife at his collar, it landed dead on and pushed him into a building. Dick got through and Artemis shot arrows and I threw knives at them until all of them were unconscious or stuck on a building. I went up to Bob, who I had stuck against a building and kicked him in the balls.

"You can tell him in Soprano." I said, grabbing some of my knives from him. I then went over to Bruce and Dick who were gaping in surprise. Artemis started to laugh.

"You _so_ l-" She said, before I put my hand over her mouth and looked pointedly at Bruce and Dick, who looked _extremely_ interested in the next word out of Artemis' mouth. She nodded and I took my hand off of her mouth.

"We are _so_ talking about this tonight." She said forcefully. I blushed and nodded. I turned to Bruce and Dick, who were looking truly interested.

"Well, come on. We're close." I said, walking towards our apartment building. We arrived there without any interruptions. That didn't mean we could get _in_ without any interruptions, though.

"Sup, little ladies? Jake's worried, you apparently were supposed to be here earlier?" Adam said, in that voice that clearly meant Jake was _very_ worried.

"Well, we would have been home earlier, but we ran into some trouble with Ed, Bob, and Co." I said, as there was proof of that.

"Oh, well-" Adam said, only to be cut off by Jeremy.

"If it isn't the biggest slut around, Violet Crock." Jeremy said sneering. Artemis and I exchanged glances.

"If it isn't the biggest D-Bag around, Jeremy Green." I said, smiling. His sneer deepened.

"So, who are your 'friends'?" He said, using air-quotes around the word "friends."

"Oh, this is my uncle and cousin. So, yah, I found my family. You still looking for your balls?" I asked pleasantly. Adam started and shook Bruce's hand.

"It's nice meeting you, sir. I'm Adam, Vi, Art, and I go _way_ back." Adam said, with up-most respect. Bruce was apparently taken aback and didn't know how to respond. But he didn't have to because then Jake came out of the door to the warehouse next door, scowling. Adam hurried away, whispering to me as he passed,

"Good luck." I smiled.

"Vi, seriously?" He said in exasperation.

"What happened?" I asked he looked pointedly at Bruce and Dick. I rolled my eyes and he winced.

"Well, S.M. was lurking, around the time you were _supposed_ to be home, obviously to catch you and Art." He said, still staring pointedly at Bruce, before he gasped.

"Is he-"

"Yah."

"So that's-"

"Yep."

"And you need to-"

"Yah." I said finishing up our conversation that Artemis and Adam were pointedly making sounds about.

"So who's that?" He asked, pointing at Dick.

"Cousin, who knew?" I asked he smiled.

"Have a good night." He said I smiled.

"You too, Jake." I said, turning and ushering Bruce and Dick inside. Mom opened the door and gasped.

"Hello." Bruce said politely. She just gestured to the seats and went and turned off the TV. They didn't sit down.

"Violet, sweetie…" Mom started, I smiled sheepishly.

"Well they wanted to come and wouldn't take no for an answer." I said quickly, she rubbed the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

"And…" She said wearily. I jumped slightly.

"Oh, right. Mom, this is my uncle, Bruce Wayne, and my adopted cousin, Dick Grayson. Mr. Wayne, this is my adoptive mother, Paula Crock. Dick, this is my mom, Paula."

"Hello, nice to meet you." Bruce said, shaking hands with mom solemnly. She smiled and gestured to the seats.

"Nice to meet you too. Now, sit. I think we have enough food for everyone…" She trailed off, looking at Artemis and me helplessly.

"Don't worry mom, they brought food." I said quickly, trying to spare her having to explain that we didn't have any.

"Oh, really?" She asked, still in worry mode, "You really didn't have to do that, Mr. Wayne. We have a delicious dinner planned." Bruce looked skeptical, which was surprising, because his only indication we were poor were Artemis and my McDonalds uniforms.

"Well, Alfred wouldn't let us leave home without it, and if we don't eat it we'll be wasting food, and we wouldn't want that, now would we?" He said, thinking of every argument, which was a skill I guess he learned in business school or whatever he went to. Mom smiled.

"Well then, I guess we should eat then?" She said, smiling, and knowing full well she'd been outmaneuvered. I guess the business executive trumps ex-assassin.

"Artemis, Violet, go clean up, we have company." She said, turning to us, we nodded and went to our room. We changed into our best clothes, which were black dress pants and solid colored shirts with V-Neck collars. Artemis' was green and mine was a color of purple that was remotely blue that I swore was periwinkle but mom insisted it was violet, and it looked great with my eyes, so I left the whole situation alone. We were fixing our hair when I heard mom gasp in surprise in the kitchen. Artemis and I hurried out, regardless of our hair and sprinted to the kitchen.

"Mom," I started.

"Are you," Artemis continued.

"OK?" I finished, it was pretty natural for us to speak like this, we just always seemed to know what the other was thinking. Bruce and Dick exchanged glances and quickly looked away. Mom just pointed to the counter, causing Artemis and I to gasp too. On the counter was a _huge_ turkey, filled with stuffing, and with a giant side of vegetables and there was even French bread. There was a bag of salad that was just _there_ as if for no reason at all. Bruce and Dick were standing there awkwardly as we just gaped at the sheer _amount_ of food that was sitting on our kitchen counter. And Artemis and I work at restaurants. Eventually Artemis, mom, and I were able to form mono-syllables and were trying to speak, but it wasn't working that well, and Bruce and Dick looked awkward.

"So, are we going to eat?" Dick finally said impatiently, jolting Mom, Artemis, and I out of our shock.

"Um, sure."

"Yah."

"Great." We said one after the other, but still overlapping. Bruce and Dick exchanged another look, what the hell is with them? Mom finished fixing up the turkey and sneakily putting away the small chicken we had planned to eat. We all sat down and ate in silence, with Artemis, Mom, and I stuffing ourselves slowly, trying to seem like we had had a meal like this since Dad left. Eventually we all finished, with 75% of the turkey still there. Mom, Artemis, and I were just staring at it, deciding what to do when Bruce started.

"You can keep the turkey." He said, as if he had just remembered this.

"We couldn't possibly..." Mom started, but she was already packing it up and putting the leftovers in the fridge. To alleviate some of the awkwardness this sentence an corresponding action produced, Artemis and I stood up almost simultaneously and cleared the dishes.

"Would you like to watch some Television?" Mom asked, trying to make it seem like we were better off than we were.

"Actually, why don't Dick, Artemis, and Violet go hang out while we talk." Bruce said, causing Mom to practically start crying. I hurried over to her, and gave her a hug, leaning down.

"He promised he wouldn't take me away. And Artemis and I won't let him, OK? We're a family, and we'll be fine." I whispered into her ear, she smiled, as she hugged me back, I straightened up, and went over to Artemis, who, of course, had fully understood that moment. Bruce and Dick were exchanging _yet another_ look, seriously, it was getting annoying.

"OK, you kids go have fun. Artemis, Violet, why don't you give Dick here the tour. I'll talk to Mr. Wayne." She said, shooing us away with barely concealed worry. She wasn't as good at hiding her feelings after jail and having Dad leave...

"OK, Mom." Artemis and I said in unison, turning to Dick, who just raised one of his eyebrows in a questioning look. We mirrored him, causing his other eyebrow to rise equal to the first one, then we mirrored this and he gave up in our apparent silent competition. We led him down the hall and showed him the Guest Room, then Mom's room, then ours, skipping over Dad's office. We finished in our room, with Artemis and I sitting on our beds and Dick sitting on a chair from our desk, just looking at us.

"Yep. So, this is our room." Artemis said, again. He nodded.

"So, pretty sick moves out there today." He said, as if stating that the sky was blue.

"Thanks. You learn it quick out here." Artemis said, almost darkly.

"And our Dad taught us." I said, quickly, looking at Artemis who nodded. We couldn't let Bruce think our neighborhood wasn't safe. Our apartment was actually pretty nice, since Dad used to pay for it, and assassins get paid pretty well.

"Cool. And I get why you were a little overwhelmed at the Manor. I came from the circus, so I get it." Dick said, trying to alleviate the tension.

"Oh, really? What did you do?" I asked, he smiled, looking surprised at the question.

"I was an acrobat." He said, surprise evident in his voice.

"Oh, right. The Flying Graysons?" Artemis asked, he nodded.

"I'm sorry for your loss." I said politely. He still looked surprised.

"Um, what's wrong?" I asked, still wondering why he was surprised.

"Oh, its just that every rich person I've met has the same reaction every time I say I was from the circus." He said, Artemis and I looked at each other.

"I'm guessing it's the same one as when you say you're from this neighborhood?" I asked gently. He nodded. We sat there in silence for a second.

"You do know you are going to have to go public as Bruce's niece, right?" Dick asked out of the blue. I started a little.

"Um, no. Why?" I asked, confused.

"The News-people are going to find out who you are, you know. And then they will stalk you. Its better if you just come out as his niece, that way they won't stalk you as much." He said, with the same voice, as if we were discussing the weather.

"I think you might find that it would be _very_ hard for them to figure out who I am and/or stalk me." I said in the same tone of voice. He looked mildly interested.

"And why exactly is that?" He asked. I smiled.

"You see. I was put into the Hospital as Violet King, and my name is Violet Crock. _And_ there are approximately 50 Violets in Gotham alone." I said smugly.

"They can trace adoption records, you know." He said, confused. I smiled thinly.

"Yep. You're right about that." I said, hoping he wouldn't follow up.

"_So_, why can't they find you?" He asked, following up his original question, darn him! I exchanged glances with Artemis who shrugged, obviously also not having a clue.

"Well, I have a better question. How exactly did Mr. Wayne know the pasts of my adoptive family?" I asked, causing him to adopt a panicked look for a second, then look mildly impressed.

"Well, someone was paying attention." Bruce said from the doorway, with Mom behind him, peering into the room looking slightly harried and holding onto a piece of paper as if for dear life.

"I always pay attention." I said simply, smiling innocently at Mom, who was looking at me sharply. He looked mildly curious, but let it go.

"So, Violet. Mr. Wayne and I were talking about your school." Mom said in her innocent voice. My eyebrows went all the way to my hairline, the innocent voice was never good.

"Yep. I go to Gotham North." I said definitively, having a pretty good idea where this was going, "You know, where my sister and friends are?" I asked innocently. Bruce gave me a curious look.

"Well, Mr. Wayne has offered to pay the tuition for you to go to Gotham Academy." Mom said severally, making the impression that she _really_ wanted me to go.

"Mom. Do you _remember_ the last time you had one of these ideas?" I said, trying to imply my meaning without Bruce, who was listening eagerly, knowing what I was saying. Mom started, obviously having forgot that whole incident.

"Oh, right. Well, if we were especially frugal, and we-" She started.

"Mom, it's not possible." Artemis interjected, causing Mom to deflate a bit in her wheelchair.

"Right. I am very sorry Mr. Wayne, but my daughters have gone to school together for their entire lives, and I promised when they were little that I wouldn't separate them." She said, causing Bruce to look even more curious.

"I understand." He said in a tone of voice that clearly showed he didn't. "But, I hope you will consider my other offer, Ms. Crock, and please know that the school offer is, and will continue to be, open if you wish to choose it, Violet." I nodded, as he continued, "I would also like to invite you to Wayne Manor tomorrow for our weekly family game night, Artemis can come too if she wishes to, Dick has invited one of his friends over as well." He said awkwardly.

"She would love to." Mom said, answering for me.

"I can't go though. I have work tomorrow evening, but it's Violet's evening off." Artemis said quickly. I smiled.

"I would love to come." I said, knowing when to back off. He nodded.

"Dick and I will go now. I look forward to you coming over tomorrow." He said, turning to go. Artemis and I stood up in alarm and Mom sat up.

"Mr. Wayne, this is a very dangerous neighborhood, specifically at night. How about Artemis and Violet accompany you..." Mom said, trying to get him to not kill himself.

"I assure you. We'll be fine. Goodnight." He said going out with Dick in tow before we could say anything against it. We stood there for a minute in shock.

"Ten to one he's dead by your family game night Violet." Artemis said, Mom nodded. I thought for a second.

"I'll take that bet." I said simply, causing both Artemis and Mom to look surprised, Artemis more than Mom, I was always the one with that kind of intuition.

"Really? Why?" She asked.

"I don't know. He knows too much to be just a billionaire philanthropist. And when I asked him if he could fight he just replied with a simple 'yes', like he's been fighting forever. And he wasn't surprised all evening. Not even once. Even when he really should have been, like Dad's associates. So, he's either a Shadow, or a Leaguer, or a supplier. But he's in with the trade." I said simply, smiling slightly, now that I had figured it out. Mom and Artemis just looked at me expectantly.

"So, which is he?" Artemis asked, obviously realizing I wasn't going to continue.

"Oh, right. Well, he isn't known as a ruthless figure, and he doesn't seem overly evil, so I would say Leaguer or a really up there supplier for the League." I said simply, conveying with a look that there was more to the story than that. We couldn't talk in the apartment however, there were most likely some form of eyes on it, at the very least. Artemis nodded and Mom smiled sadly.

"Bundle up, its going to be chilly tonight." Mom said, to much staring.

"It's June." I said simply, Mom just smiled and wheeled away. Artemis shrugged and made a 'who knows' gesture. We headed into our rooms and went directly to the bathroom. In the bathroom I pushed in one of the tiles on the wall, while Artemis pushed on another and our clothes we use for patrolling came out. The were just simple black with knee-pads and seemed pretty normal, but we each had a mask and on mine's shoulder there was a crescent moon, while on Artemis' there was a sun. I put my hair in a braid, while Artemis secured her ponytail, and we headed out the window and stayed in the shadows on the next rooftop. We patrolled our part of Gotham because Batman rarely did and we both had personal things go wrong on these streets and we wanted to make sure they never happened for anyone else, ever. We ran into a couple goons with the normal robberies which we broke of before we stopped moving. It was better to distance ourselves from our house when we did these runs, in case any of the goons figured it out.

"So?" Artemis asked.

"Maybe Batman." I said quietly.

"What?" She practically shouted, causing us to run for more cover as some goons ran by.

"Well," I said breathing heavily, "Teen boy with black hair and a crocked smile, and tall muscular man with black hair, millions of dollars, a vengeful wish against crime, and an abhorrence for guns is the criteria, how many freakin' people can fit that? I think if you find one group that does, it pretty much guarantees it's them." I said thinking it through, wow, these people suck at hiding their identities.

"Your saying your uncle is Batman?" She asked, still incredulous.

"Yep. But I'll see for sure tomorrow." I said simply. She looked curious.

"How?"

"Well, I don't know. I guess I can't expect a secret lab to be displayed to visitors. I guess I can't prove it." I whispered, Artemis nodded.

"Speaking of things that _used_ to be unprovable. Do you like J.?" She asked excitedly, we mostly spoke in initials about people who belong in the neighborhood. A dark shape flew over our hiding spot and we both started.

"It's probably nothing." She said, trying to calm me down.

"No. OK, that was a distinctly Bat -Shaped shadow." I whispered harshly, freaking out.

"You're probably just paranoid, beside, what if you're right? Then he wouldn't hurt you right? Because you're family." She said before gasping.

"Artemis, I know your experience with family was different than mine. I've gotten over it, you don't need to gasp every time you mention it. I'm fine." I said calmly, but inside I was not so calm. Artemis, of course knew this, so she leaned over and hugged me.

"It's OK, she was a bitch anyway. They didn't deserve you." She whispered, I shrugged her off.

"I just can't talk about it, OK? I know you think that, but I never have, and I probably never will." I said sadly.

"It's true." She whispered fiercely.

"It was my fault. It was me. It was all my fault. I've lived with that for five years now. I wasn't good enough, they left, then it happened. It was my fault and I don't want to talk about it, OK?" I said, walking out of our hiding space and jumping up onto the next roof, just in time to see a black shape out of the corner of my eye move. I stopped dead and looked over, but nothing was there. I shrugged and jumped off the roof, landing on the back of a robber, which effectively stopped him. I ran on, stopping crime in my wake, just trying not to think. About an hour later Artemis caught up to me and we circled back. We stooped on a rooftop about three blocks from the apartment.

"So, what about J?" Artemis asked, apparently having to know.

"I don't know. I sort of hate B. anyway, but I don't know." I whispered back, still confused about the whole thing myself.

"Nope. You like J. It's been obvious forever, but now you're finally starting to see it yourself." She said, with her classical, 'I'm a girl so I have to act ditzy' voice.

"Well, we're just friends. Anyway, we need to get back, M. will be worried." I said, jumping onto the next roof. We headed back in through the bathroom window, changed, said goodnight to mom, and went to bed.


	3. Ding, Ding, Ding! We have a Winner!

**Welcome to another exciting chapter of Batman's Niece. Please feel free, and obligated, to leave a review!**

**~EmiStone**

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><p>Things you swear you'll do before you die<br>It's the city you love that waits for you  
>But you're too damn scared to fly<p>

It's all the dreams that never came true  
>'cause you're too damn scared to try<p>

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><p><strong>Violet's P.O.V.<strong>

"Do I seriously have to go?" I asked mom again before I set off for my afternoon shift at McDonalds.

"Yes, Yes you do." She replied as Artemis sniggered at me over her shoulder. I glared at her and nodded at mom, groaning.

"You should really bring a change of clothes... she said, looking at my McDonalds uniform.

"I already have jeans on, and I'm wearing a tank top underneath." I said, trying to get her to see that I couldn't wear whatever I wanted to my shift.

"Bring your sweatshirt!" She shouted at me as I passed it. I grabbed it without comment. I was really tired of arguing.

"Bye, Mom! I love you! By Art! Love ya!" I shouted out the door as I headed to my job. I was greeted at the door by Arnold, who was really glad to be replaced. It was a relatively normal shift and I got a bag full of hamburgers when I had to show some criminals out the door. I walked to Bruce's ginormous mountain house, only to find it completely surrounded by paparazzi. I promptly pulled up my hood and uncovered my uniform. I headed towards the house, trying to look the right amount of interested and scared. When I got to the front someone finally noticed me, and screamed out,

"Hey! Who are you?" I turned back, trying to look confused.

"I'm the delivery girl... Well, I work for McDonalds, right, and suddenly we got dis call for delivery, right? But we don't deliver! But ya wouldn't believe the amount that guy on da phone offered!" I said, purposely over doing my lower city accent. "What's goin' on here?" They promptly made disappointed sounds and let me through, not even one of them taking a picture, idiots. I walked up to the gate and stared into the camera, holding up the McDonalds bag and winking. The gate promptly opened and I walked to the door, fully aware that the Paparazzi still had a good shot and could here every word I said. I knocked and called out,

"Delivery!" Alfred opened the door a smidgen, saw it was me and opened it all the way and pulled me in. The paparazzi, just barely figuring it out took maybe three shots of the back of my sweatshirt and that was it.

"Very resourceful of you miss." He said, seeming impressed.

"Thank you, Mr. Pennyworth." I said, taking off my sweatshirt and McDonalds shirt and draping them over my arm. "Is there any use for about ten to twelve hamburgers?" Alfred smiled deviously, just as I heard a voice coming from the other room.

"Is that Violet?" Bruce asked.

"Yes, her and young mister West's dinner." Alfred replied, leading me into a room off the side of the hallway. It was mahogany with a giant flat screen TV and everything you could ever want in terms of games. I just stared around again. I saw Dick sitting next to a kid with red hair, they were playing a video game which they paused as I came in, and Bruce was sitting in the corner, setting up a board game. Suddenly the red head was right in front of me, as Dick leaped over the couch to stand next to him.

"Hello there. Come here often?" The red head said in an obvious attempt to flirt with me, he was my age. I noticed he had green eyes and was rather cute, once you got over his attitude, which I wasn't going to do.

"Not really." I said in a monotone, which is how Artemis and I respond to flirting generally. He was thrown for a second before putting out his hand to shake.

"Wally West, its _fantastic_ to meet you." He said as I shook his hand, he tried to pull me closer to him. I pulled back, as he looked mildly impressed.

"Hi, I'm Violet, it _might_ be nice to meet you." I replied, my eyebrows raised, Dick was sniggering beside him as I turned to him.

"Hi, Cuz!" He said brightly, causing me to smile.

"Hi, Dick. How are you?" I asked, feeling like maybe this wouldn't be too awkward.

"I'm good. You wanna play with Wally and I?" he asked excitedly, pointing to the video game. My eyes widened and I smiled thinly. I had no idea how to play video games.

"No, you guys are almost done, I'll just watch." I said carefully, sitting down across from Bruce, who tensed slightly.

"What game is that?" I asked, noting his slightly tense expression. Hmm, Maybe that was a Bat shaped shadow...

"Risk. It's a war game." He said, looking at me curiously. Something in my expression made him give me a wry half-smile, and say, "Because Wally and Dick will be busy for a while, would you like to play?"

"Of course. I'll be silver, I take it you'll be black?" I asked in a conversational tone of voice, noticing that Dick and Wally had once again paused their video game, this time to watch us.

"Of course. Would you happen to be blue or green?" He asked, blue obviously was Sportsmaster, but green could be either Cheshire or Ra's al Ghul.

"No, silver will do. I suppose you were almost green?" I said, still in the light tone of voice, although this was getting more dangerous.

"I refused. I believe the same way you didn't want to be blue?" He said, his voice tenser.

"I believe it was a little different. I would be purple, my name being Violet, but there doesn't seem to be a purple." I said, still keeping my voice as light as I possibly could. He nodded before setting up the game. We played for the better part of an hour, I was using every war tactic I knew, and I could see he was doing the same. Finally I had him a corner, trapped. I won in a short time after that. We both looked up to see Alfred, Dick, and Wally all standing there with surprised looks on their faces.

"The difference is seeing the tactics used." I said, turning to Bruce, who was smiling wryly.

"Ah, how might that be the difference in a game?" He asked, still half-smiling.

"Simple. If you see them used you will never ever ever forget any of them, not that I've ever seen them used, of course." I replied, smiling politely.

"Of course." He affirmed, smiling fully now.

"Well, then. Dinner, anyone?" Alfred said, causing a race to the kitchen that Wally won by a landslide, leaving me alone with Bruce.

"Have you ever thought about becoming a Detective for the police?" He said in a conversational way.

"I doubt sincerely that I would fit in." I replied, in the same tone.

"Really? You seem to have an exceptional sense of detection." He said, smiling.

"It would have been much harder if you didn't want me to figure it out, sir." I said seriously. He tensed slightly.

"Oh, was I not supposed to figure that one out? Funny." I said, exiting to the kitchen where Wally, Dick, and Alfred were all leaning against the walls with cups.

"Really? In a house literally covered with microphones you use cups?" I asked, laughing slightly. They all blushed, and tried to cover it up. "Don't worry. You're secret's safe with me." I said, heading up the stairs. I heard footsteps behind me as I turned to one of the open windows on the second floor. I jumped out as the person neared the floor and I landed on my feet, using my powers to stop myself slightly. I ran the opposite direction from the Paparazzi, and headed around the docks to home, dodging people and using all of the evasion tactics at my disposal.

I finally got to my apartment, where he couldn't get at me, due to the large gang. Jake was coming around the corner, from the building next door, where they had their actual headquarters. He gestured me over as I looked around to see a large dark shadow in the alley next to me. I dodged the shape coming at me and hurried over. Jake led me to the building and handed me some pictures, which I looked over, surprise leaking onto my face.

"Sports Master? What's he doing around? Mom ran him out months ago." I asked, trying to puzzle out why he would choose to come back now.

"Don't know. But I heard a rumor that the Shadows have been wanting you and Art back." He said worriedly, his eyebrows creasing slightly.

"We quit. I made sure that they would leave us alone, at least in Gotham." I said, looking at the next picture, which was one of Batman on top of the building.

"How sure are you?" He asked, still sounding worried.

"Very. She promised. Now what's this?" I asked, showing him the Batman picture. He shrugged slightly.

"We think he's watchin' Sports Master. Trying to see what he's up to. Figured you should know." He said, obviously he didn't know. I nodded, giving him back the pictures.

"Thanks Jake." I said, leaning up and kissing him on his cheek. He smiled dreamily and then turned bright red and hurried inside, without saying anything.

"Well _that_ was weird." I said, hurrying into my apartment building after greeting Adam. I burst into the apartment slightly out of breath, leaning against the door. Artemis and Mom looked up before turning back to the TV.

"I'm guessing family game night wasn't all that great." Mom said, sighing. I glared at the back of her head as I headed towards the TV room.

"No, no it wasn't. Whatcha watching?" I asked, sitting down. Art started to giggle as mom joined in.

"Your family game night." Mom said, full out laughing now. I grabbed the remote and turned up the volume.

"Yes, this is the only picture available of Violet King as she entered the Wayne Mansion tonight. She was apparently disguised as a delivery girl from McDonalds to gain entrance to the Mansion. There are only ten Violets in Gotham that work at McDonalds: Violet Johnson, Violet Smith, Violet Jones, Violet Davis, Violet Black, Violet Moore, Violet Walker, Violet Gomez, Violet Cole, and Violet Robertson." The reporter said, causing Artemis, Mom and I to burst out laughing.

"They didn't even get you!" Artemis said, practically rolling on the floor with laughter.

"Shh! We'll miss the lies!" I said, turning the volume up more.

"Later on, one of the Paparazzi reported seeing a figure running from the Mansion, dressed in a red sweatshirt, but rumors still abound." The reporter handed off to another one, talking about an earthquake as I rubbed my temples.

"How did they get my name?" I asked, confused.

"Apparently some police officer gave it to them." Mom said, in the tone that showed that she had been following this avidly. I smiled.

"Well, I'm heading to bed. Artemis, wanna come?" I said, knowing that I really didn't want to be alone, unless I wanted a family visit.

"Sure." She said, coming with me. I was in my pajamas and waiting for her to come back from the bathroom, when I heard the sound on the roof. I carefully looked out and saw a dark shape on the roof next door. I slowly closed the blinds and dragged the curtains across the window.

"What are you doing?" Artemis asked, coming into the room and getting into bed. I laughed a little, hysterically, before getting into bed myself.

"Nothing. Nothing at all. G'Night Artemis!" I said, before pretending to go to sleep. Artemis looked at me weirdly for a second before going to sleep. I eventually went to sleep, looking periodically at the window, half expecting Batman to just crash through it.

:) ∞ :) ∞ :) ∞ :) ∞ :) ∞ :) ∞ :) ∞ :) ∞ :) ∞ :) ∞ :) ∞ :) ∞ :) ∞ :) ∞

Two weeks. It had been two weeks since my lovely family game night, and I was still living in slight fear. After about a week I had stopped flinching at every shadow and had started to go back to my job at McDonalds. No one mentioned it. I went to my jobs and pretended nothing had happened, and everyone pretended along with me. Everyone, that is, except for the news. Everyday they had a segment in which they would interview one of the Violets who work at McDonalds, or they would get rebuked at Wayne Manor, or the police station. Mom, Artemis, and I thought that this was hilariously funny, and would try to tune in every night, which was hard because of our Jobs at Starbucks.

That was the situation on Saturday as I was in the middle of my shift at Starbucks. I was in the kitchen getting Poison Ivy coffee, she ordered some weird type that I swear no one else ordered, and was just on the menu to keep environmentalists happy, when I heard a gasp from Beka. I turned in surprise to see her pointing out the door to something in the restaurant. I walked out past her, just to stop in shock to see Batman, THE Batman, and Robin coming into the restaurant. Batman turned his head to stare at me, then very slowly, and deliberately, sat down, right in the exact middle of my section. I groaned, and Beka came up behind me, clapping me on the shoulder.

"Better you than me, girl. At least you don't have a police record." She said, moving to get one of the goons orders.

"Because it got stolen." I said, to her back, dodging the throwing star that was thrown at my head by an inch. "You should know I can hear those things by now." I said, as I gave Ivy her coffee.

"You need anything else?" I asked, as she slurped up the coffee.

"Yes. My baby needs some water." She said, pointing to a potted plant she brought in.

"Tap? It has more minerals." I asked, trying to prolong the time before I needed to go talk to Batman.

"That would be lovely. Thank you for being so thoughtful to my baby." She said, stroking her plant. I hurried back to the kitchen and poured a rather large cup, before emptying it and pouring another. I was about to empty that one when Artemis came from behind me and took it.

"Beka says you're stalling." She said, before handing me the water back.

"You would be too. Now- I'm going! I'm going!" I said as she touched her bow. I walked rather fast out of the kitchen and gasped at what I saw. Ivy's plant was attacking Batman and Robin, who were dodging, as Beka was tied up by one of her vines on the other side of the room. I quickly stepped into the fray, grabbing the pot and putting my knife to the stem.

"Ivy." I said calmly, causing her to look over and gasp, forgetting all about Batman and Robin as they went back to their seats.

"But you were so nice! You were getting my baby water." She said, in a sort of pout.

"That was before it started attacking customers, Ivy." I said carefully, edging my knife closer to the plant.

"But he was making my baby uncomfortable! He was making my baby scared!" She said, almost hysterically, pointing to Batman.

"I'm sorry to hear that. But you have to calm down." I said, still calm, as Beka was released and the plant went back to its normal size. She sat down as I released the plant. The restaurant was still staring as I walked over and got the water from where I put it when I came out from the kitchen.

"Well, I bet after that much growing and shrinking that your baby's pretty thirsty, right?" I said kindly as I handed her the glass. She nodded.

"I'm sorry. I promise not to cause fights here ever again." She said, touching her plant lovingly as she poured water into the soil.

"Um, thank you, Ivy." I said, as the restaurant went back to normal. THAT was weird, but you could never tell with Ivy. I headed over to Batman's table, but was stopped by Beka right before it, unfortunately within ear shot.

"Took you long enough." She said, punching my shoulder, which I twisted away from her.

"Hey, I was getting the water! Besides, what business did you have getting tied up, Ms. Mercenary!" I said, laughing as she got into her defensive stance.

"Fine. Be mean! But you still have Batman in your section!" She said, dropping her voice to a whisper.

"Yeah, Yeah. Go serve Adam." I said, shoving her with my shoulder as I walked past her to the table. I took out my pad and pen and stood there with my eyebrows raised, chewing gum, the picture of a bored teenager that works at Starbucks.

"What do ya want?" I asked in a bored way, thickening my Lower City accent.

"What? I couldn't quite understand you, with the accent and all." Robin asked, smirking. I glared slightly.

"What do you want to drink?" I asked, this time with _almost_ no accent, I didn't want them thinking I could stop it. Batman straightened up and looked at me, smirking.

"Black Coffee." He said, in his Batman voice, which was quite different than his Bruce voice but I knew better.

"I bet." I said wryly, heading into the kitchen, hearing Robin complaining behind me. In the kitchen I was faced with Beka and Artemis, staring at me as if my head exploded.

"Um, he wants a black coffee, and I don't think we should poison it..." I said to Beka, who started making it. Artemis was still staring at me.

"What?" I asked, after a bit.

"Accent?" She asked, as I laughed.

"Oh, I was talking to Beka right before hand," I said, knowing she couldn't hear, "You know how we are." Artemis laughed too, shaking her head at me to let me know she didn't believe me but wasn't going to mention it. I got the coffee and a water and went over to the table. I set them down and was about to turn away when Batman spoke up.

"Can I trust that this hasn't been poisoned?" He said, sounding amused.

"That would ruin our reputation as a restaurant." I said over my shoulder, going to the next table. I did my round of the tables and it was maybe ten minutes before I had to go back to Batman's table. He hadn't touched his coffee.

"Can I get you anything?" I asked, knowing from Robin's smirk that there was a plan in motion.

"Yes. My coffee is too hot." Batman said. I smiled.

"Of course. One second," I said, grabbing his coffee and going to the kitchen. I poured some of it out and then put maybe five ice cubes in. I handed it back to him, along with the check smiling.

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" He asked, smirking slightly. I checked my watch to see my shift was almost over, I sighed and made my expression look like my shift just starting and I had forever to go.

"Of course not, Patron or Patroness. Its my happy duty to serve you the best coffee in Gotham, Starbucks coffee. At the safest location in Gotham, 233 Fortford in the Narrows." I said, pulling out the script that we were supposed to say at these occasions, and saying it with the air of someone who has said it so many times that they have become bored with life, which by the way, is once.

"Patroness?" Robin asked, grinning and trying to hold back his laughter.

"We're required to say both genders in cases with masks or other forms of hidden I.D." I said, still in that bored tone of voice. "Just tell your server when you're done, and remember to pay your check." I turned and headed out the door, hanging up my apron on the hooks provided and clocking out. I started running the instant I was out of the door, but of course, I was trying to outrun Batman, so I didn't have much hope to begin with. Sure enough as I was running through the second to last alley to get to home I was tripped by a bat-shaped device, tied and gagged by another, and thrown over the back of the Bat himself.


	4. Getting to Yes

**Have you guys seen the new season yet? AWESOME! I'm sorta scared for Artemis if Kaldur went off the handle! Oh, well! IT'S TOTALLY AWESOME! I also got a Beta, so HUGE thanks to Robin-Is-Totally-Whelming for helping a lot and getting back so quickly! Please Review!**

**~EmiStone**

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><p><strong><em>You may say I'm a dreamer<em>  
><em>But I'm not the only one<em>  
><em>I hope someday you'll join us<em>  
><em>And the world will be as one<em>**

* * *

><p><strong>Batman's P.O.V. (Morning of that Day)<strong>

I was in the watchtower, but nothing was happening! I decided to try to figure out the mystery that was my niece.

**(An Hour Later)**

"What the Hell?" I asked thin air, as I once again failed to find anything useful. I'm THE Batman for God's sake! I put up a picture of her on the screen and stared at it, trying to figure out why it looked somewhat familiar, other than her being my niece.

"Why are you looking up Rose?" I heard from behind me. I almost jumped, but didn't because, well, I'm Batman. I turned around to see Black Canary looking at the screen questioningly.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, not able to keep my curiosity in.

"Um, Rose. Blood Red Rose to be exact... Remember? About a year ago I decided to take her as my protegé?" Black Canary asked, looking at me like I was insane.

"Not exactly..." I hedged, God damn it! I'm Batman! I'm supposed to know everything! But, I couldn't remember what she was talking about. Dinah rolled her eyes and pushed my chair away. She typed for a second before coming up with a mug shot of what was clearly Violet wearing a red mask shaped like two rose leaves and a corset dress with the same design of red petals, super-sized, as well as the skirt, allowing freedom of movement. On the bottom of the screen was the words "Blood Red Rose: Identity: Unknown: Status: Unknown."

"Unknown?" I asked. Dinah looked at me in surprise.

"You really don't remember?"

"I've had a lot going on this week." I replied coolly.

"She was sort of an unwilling assassin. The Shadows forced her, through torture as far as we can tell, to train to be one. But, on her first assignment she called us, and I talked to her. She had this ability-"

"To throw knives?" I asked with a touch of panic, great, just what I need, an assassin for a niece.

"Yes, actually. But she also has a power. Born with it as far as she could tell. She can control wind, or air I guess, it works really similarly to my Canary Cry, so I offered some tricks and she offered some knife tricks in return. What I would give to actually train with her..." Dinah trailed off dreamily, as the women in the Watch Tower did whenever they daydreamed about weapons, then straightened up abruptly, "How did you know about the knife thing? I was the only one who knew."

"Violet King." I replied, I knew she knew what I was talking about as Flash had ribbed me all day on being THE Batman and not knowing I had a niece.

"What about your niece?" She replied, confused. I turned the screen back to a picture of Violet and put the picture of Red Rose next to it.

"Holy Mother of..." She said, trailing off. "She's mine!" She yelled, pointing her finger at me.

"You couldn't even find her." I replied.

"I have her name." She replied, challenging me.

"No. Its a bit of a different situation."

"Try me."

**(Ten Minutes Later)**

"So what? I thought she was an assassin, this isn't anything compared to that. It was probably just weird to you because she's your niece."

"Fine so what do we do about it?" I asked.

"I have a plan. Do you know where she works?"

* * *

><p><strong>Violet's P.O.V.<strong>

Of course, bouncing up and down on Batman's back isn't the way I would have wanted to spend that night, a bubble-bath being the first, but no one really tells you just how _damn_ uncomfortable it actually is. He is wearing Kevlar for Pete's sake! Why isn't this mentioned in school? "Never get kidnapped by Batman class, because his armor is made to withstand knives and bullets, and your face is not." Wouldn't that have been an interesting class? It sure as hell would have been more useful than learning significant figures and memorizing the periodic table!

With my inner thoughts of murdering my Chemistry teacher, Batman, Robin, and Catwoman (all at once), I failed to notice how we arrived at the mysterious Batmobile. But, hell, did I notice when I saw it. Oh my God, was that so cool looking! I was so happy that Batman didn't blindfold me right now! Then, he proceeded to open the trunk and stuff me in it. Holy... why was there a chair in there? I sent Batman a disturbed questioning look and he had the decency to slam the trunk down. Note the sarcasm.

Something round rolled onto my foot and I nearly screamed, expecting a bloody skull, but I then looked closer and saw it was an orange, I looked around the surprisingly spacious trunk and saw grocery bags in the corner. Ok, I am officially disappointed in life right now. I felt the car take a sharp turn and felt a brief moment of weightlessness before the car stopped abruptly. I heard a metal door close and realized that he wasn't taking any chances this time. Looks like I was trapped. The trunk opened as I glared.

"What the Hell?" I shouted in anger as soon as the trunk opened. Batman looked shocked too, but I realized that it was because I was untied and ungagged, well, one should never tie me up before checking for knives, honestly! I got out, jumping down, and continued falling. I realized then that we were on a platform over a small area of water. I positioned myself to enter the water, but before I could an arm, similarly the same hardness as rock grabbed me around my stomach, causing my breath to leave me. I was hauled up onto the platform again, where I promptly sat down with my head between my knees until I caught my breath.

When I could finally breath I looked up to see Batman and Robin looking at me in half anticipation and half curiosity.

"God damn it, do ya know how freakin' hard ya armor is?" I said breathily, making my accent thicker so they thought it was my natural one.

"I imagine its relatively hard." Batman said, smirking. It was the smirk that did it. I stood up and slid into a defensive stance naturally, holding one of my knives.

"OK. Here's how this 's gonna play out. I'm gonna leave, n' ya are gonna let me." I said dangerously.

"Really now Rose?" I heard from the shadows in the corner, and out stepped, Black Canary.

"Fick." I cursed, using my Rose accent, which is German. God, this was going to get confusing. "Wie hast du mich gefunden?" (_"F**k." "How did you find me?"_)

"Wo hast du, du könntest verbergen?" (_"Where did you think you could hide?"_)

"Gotham." I replied, smirking.

"Und wie ist das Arbeit für Sie?" ("_And how did that work out for you?_") She replied, smirking back, as mine lessened slightly.

"Ziemlich gut für die Umstände." ("_Pretty well for the circumstances.") _I grumbled, shooting Batman a look.

"Mein Angebot steht noch." (_"My offer still stands._") She replied, sympathetically, my eyes narrowed into a glare.

"Wie sieht meine Ablehnung. Ich brauche deine Hilfe." (_"As does my refusal. I don't need your help."_) I said, glaring.

"You clearly need someone's." She said, switching to English. I glanced at Batman and Robin and stayed silent.

"What? Can't pick an accent?" She asked, smirking. I glared harder. "I suggest your natural one." I smirked slightly, realizing something.

"Wer sagt, dass ich nicht helfen?" (_"Who says I don't have help?"_)

"What?" She said sharply, as I jumped off the platform again, this time throwing knives in the direction of Batman and Robin, knowing Canary was too far away to catch me. I flipped in mid-air to grab the hand that was reaching out for me, flipping onto their bike. We sped away down the cave as I grabbed the helmet from the driver.

"Black Canary _and_ Batman, _someones in trouble!_" She said in a sing-song voice. I growled.

"Just shut up and drive." I replied as we sped out into the night, from a hole carved into the rock of the cave.

* * *

><p><strong>Batman's P.O.V.<strong>

Black Canary was laughing. That was the first thing I noticed as I got up from where I fell on the floor, after being impaled by Violet, or that's how it felt.

"Catwoman." I growled, staring at the picture on the computer screen.

"Oh," Dinah said, sobering, "Is she her protegé? Because I don't triple dip." Dick and I looked at her strangely.

"Triple?" Dick finally asked.

"Oh! Well, she was trained as an assassin, you know. So she had a mentor there. But I was going off willing participation. She was obviously trained with that knife, and it's too good to be the Shadows, they go for more of an all around training." Dinah replied. I turned back to the computer, pulling up videos from cameras around Gotham.

"Who was her assassin mentor? I might know them." I asked absent-mindedly, searching for the motorcycle.

"Ras al Ghul" Dinah replied seriously. I whirled around in surprise.

"How is she still…" I trailed off, gesturing helplessly.

"Alive? Free? I don't know. But she needs help, and fast. One person, even if it's Catwoman, isn't enough to hold back the storm once they find her." Dinah finished sorrowfully.

"I have a trace. They seem to be heading back to her apartment."

"Let's go!" Dinah shouted, pushing me towards the Batmobile. She sat down in the passenger's seat, glaring at Dick until he sighed and sat in the back. We drove off as quickly as we could. We caught up to them near her apartment. I parked the Batmobile, then we got out and snuck up to watch as Catwoman parked her bike in an empty warehouse.

"Has he been bothering you?" Catwoman asked in an obvious response to a statement we didn't hear.

"I haven't even seen him. Jake's the one with the pictures." Violet replied seriously, more seriously than someone her age should ever should.

"Well, Batman at least shouldn't be a problem. Black Canary might be, but you know, it might be good for you if-"

"No. OK? I'm _fine_." Violet interrupted harshly, moving her hand towards a knife.

"OK, then. But you know what it means if Sportsmaster's around your apartment. And when that happens you're going to need some friends. We both know I can't stop them when they finally get a hold of you." Catwoman replied seriously, looking guilty.

"You know I don't blame you for anything that happened, S. Now, you might want to get out of here before Batman comes back." Violet replied soothingly.

"How do you know he's coming?" Selina asked curiously, starting to get on her bike.

"Because of who he's with. And I like an escape route, so thanks for the pickup. Now go!" Violet said. Selina nodded once and headed off. As soon as she was gone I stepped out from the shadows. Violet leaned against one of the walls, looking for all the world like she did this every day. Black Canary came out behind me, looking pissed off.

"Now." Violet said, as if the location hadn't changed. "What do you want?"

"You damn well know what I want." Black Canary shouted, causing Violet to flinch and put her hands up in a mock surrender, backing away slowly.

"Hey, hey. Let's just calm down now. There are children present!" Violet said, giving Robin a significant look.

"Hey!"

"Let's all just talk about this rationally." I growled, seeing that she was trying to get us off topic.

"Fine. Let's." Violet said seriously, "I'm not risking anyone else. Period, end of story. Yay! Conversation over!"

"Conversation not over." Black Canary growled, "Do you honestly think I can't handle Shadow assassins? After that whole mission?" Violet crossed her arms, this was going nowhere.

"In hand-to-hand maybe. But they don't specialize in that most of the time, and you know it."

"I think I can handle it. I've only been in this business my entire life."

"I don't think you can. If they want someone dead, they die, end of story."

"Is your story just conveniently forgetting that the person they would be trying to kill is a superhero?"

"They killed Pakku! You really think you have a chance?"

"He wasn't in the profession!"

"He used to be!"

"Am I the only one who's confused here?" Robin interjected. I nodded at him, which he could tell meant I was utterly lost too.

"Back off!" Both of them screamed at the same time, before continuing their argument. I turned to Robin who shrugged, he obviously didn't know what to do with them either.

"Do you think it's that time of the month for both of them?" Robin asked, using the cover of their shouting, obviously forgetting who they both were.

"No!" They screamed at him, before continuing their argument.

"Both of you stop it!" I growled/shouted. They both turned to me with their hands on their hips, wearing identical expressions of annoyance.

"I am not saying that anyone should do anything. First, is this location secure?" I asked, trying to defuse the situation. Violet nodded tersely. "I'm not going to say that you should become Black Canary's protegé, but could you tell me why you don't want to be?"

"The Shadows will try to kill her as soon as they see that she's my mentor." She replied after a moment of silence. Black Canary opened her mouth to spring into the same argument as before but I sent her a look and she shut it and stared at me in interest.

"Why would they see that she's your mentor?" I asked, sensing victory.

"Because they have eyes?"

"Have you ever heard of Secret Identities?" I asked, smiling.

"Obviously. I have three." She said, in a flippant tone of voice.

"Don't you mean two?" I asked, curious.

"No." She started to count off her fingers, "Blood Red Rose, Violet King, and the Violet Rose. Plus Violet Crock, but that's my actual identity and not really a secret."

"Violet Rose? The tipper?" I asked surprised, she nodded. "No wonder you always want to work those cases." I said to Black Canary who nodded.

"Would one more hurt?"

"My brain, yes. And I have pretty distinctive features." She said, uncertainly.

"I can fix that. So what do you say?" I asked, tensing, as did Black Canary. Violet looked in between us for something and seemed to see it, because she smiled, sighed, and said with something similar to hope,

"Yes."


End file.
